Often people think that they’d get more out of life if their goal was simply to satisfy all their needs and wants. But the opposite is true! It might first look like that people who pile up most material goods win. But that’s little short-sighted.

When you grab all you can get, that’s what happens:
   the more you get, the less you are.
(Proverbs 1: 19, MSG)

Isn’t that the saddest thing? People who want to “create themselves” by buying and doing what they want end up losing their souls. Like Jesus asked: What good would it do to get everything you want and lose you, the real you? What could you ever trade your soul for? (Mark 8: 36-37, MSG)

The only way to find yourself is to lose yourself by following Jesus. When we focus on self we are trapped in a cage. When we focus on God, Jesus leads us into free life. God is in the business of freeing prisoners.

Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life. Focusing on the self is the opposite of focusing on God. Anyone completely absorbed in self ignores God, ends up thinking more about self than God. That person ignores who God is and what he is doing. And God isn’t pleased at being ignored. (Romans 8: 6-8, MSG)

The paradoxes of faith are tremendous: The last will be first, the first will be last; More is less, less is more; By losing yourself you find yourself; Submission leads to freedom; Self-sacrifice is the way to joy.

Why is everyone hungry for more? “More, more,” they say.
   “More, more.”
   I have God’s more-than-enough,
   More joy in one ordinary day
Than they get in all their shopping sprees.
   At day’s end I’m ready for sound sleep,
   For you, God, have put my life back together.
(Psalm 4: 6-8, MSG)

How can we get that peace, that serenity? Don’t look for humans for help. Self-help doesn’t work, either. Look for God for help. And you won’t be disappointed. Pray like never before. Let God grant you peace. Let God wash your soul from wanting wrong things in life. Let God create a new spirit in you. Why to stay in a cage when a free life is offered through Jesus!

Hallelujah! O my soul, praise God!
   All my life long I’ll praise God,
      singing songs to my God as long as I live.
Don’t put your life in the hands of experts
      who know nothing of life, of salvation life.
   Mere humans don’t have what it takes;
      when they die, their projects die with them.
   Instead, get help from the God of Jacob,
      put your hope in God and know real blessing!
   God made sky and soil,
      sea and all the fish in it.
   He always does what he says—
      he defends the wronged,
      he feeds the hungry.
   God frees prisoners—
      he gives sight to the blind,
      he lifts up the fallen.
   God loves good people, protects strangers,
      takes the side of orphans and widows,
      but makes short work of the wicked.
God’s in charge—always.
      Zion’s God is God for good!
      Hallelujah!
(Psalm 146, MSG)

 

Gracious God,
Help us!
Free us from everything that holds us prisoners!
Become everything to us!
Show us what it means to be real free!
Dwell in us!
Let our hearts brim with your joy!
In Jesus’ name,
Amen

Q4U: Do you feel caged in? Or are you free? How have you found your true identity in Christ?

Be blessed, my fellow pilgrim, as you claim freedom in Christ Jesus!

Photo courtesy of Cody Jensen